Narration
by Rioshisama
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto's world falls upside down when a single ink seal merges with the Kyuubi's chakra. For better or worse, he is now narrating his own life, with knowledge he can't possibly know! Now everyone wants Naruto, and Naruto just wants to be left alone with his ramen.


Once upon a time Rioshi had a plot idea. It stirred and it shook, it bellowed and it roared inside his head. Eventually, he finally gave in.

Sai, one of the shippuden characters has an interesting ability. The very start of the Naruto manga had Sarutobi etching seals and calligraphy in ink. Sai can animate animals and designs from ink, which attack and defend, even move like the very animals they portray. Which either imitates life flawlessly, or actually brings them into sentience.

So couldnt the same ink animate words, if it could animate ink into life itself?

A very wicked plot bunny formed. A very dastardly, insane, crazy idea floated to my keyboard! I was kidnapped! I was dragged kicking and screaming where my words dashed out onto the keys like a Sith Lord's lightning! I struggled, I yelled, but all that came forth was a maniacal laughter, ideas of Hyuuga yanderes and green leotard weilding clones!

The story is coming! Run, run for the hills I say! The story of Naruto, is about to drastically change!

N N N

_'Once there appeared a Nine Tailed Demon Fox,_  
_One Swing of its mighty tail could crumble mountains and cause tsunamis_  
_To Fight the Demon, the people assembled the shinobi._  
_One Brave Shinobi was able to seal the demon, but he lost his life._  
_That Shinobi was called the Fourth Hokage.'_  
-**Academy Coursebook v1, History of Konoha**

The jotted landscapes of a feudal village surrounded by forests and a massive mountain gleamed in the noonday sun. Though normally a peaceful place, it was today that villages were screaming in outrage, pointing up at the huge assembled faces of their leaders carved into a mountainside. Disfigured, painted mockingly, and left to fall into disrepair, a single child swung down and continued his daily prank.

"UZUMAKI NARUTOOOOOOO!"

The aged head of the leader of the village, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up from his calligraphy, designing the seals which protected the village, to stare blankly at the cool eyes of the panicking village elders, wordlessly sliding his fingers across the paper as an ink sparrow rolled off the page, flying off and returning momentarily with a blonde child dressed in an orange jumpsuit years old. The sparrow itself flew off, and the

"Oy, Naruto." the wizened Hokage, Fire Shadow of the leaf calmly engaged in a staring contest with his charge. This was the second time this day that the orphan boy had returned to painting the Hokage Monument, a testament to the greatest shinobi this land had produced.

Naturally this man, Sarutobi Hiruzen's image was carved into the mountain as well, being known far and wide as the god *of* shinobi due to his incredible mastery of the elements through thousands of techniques called jutsu. Hm, hm! Modestly, he cleared his throat to gain the young boy's attention as it wandered.

"Old man...jiji..." the younger ninja in training deftly returned while his eyes strayed, his brilliant orange jumpsuit clashing with the decorated blue stripes here and there. Of course, since nobody would sell to this prankster Sarutobi purchased them himself. Nobody really had the heart to correct his poor eyesight and Naruto loved it because he thought the world of this elderly shinobi.

As a calm pair of fingers tilted the young Uzumaki's eyes to those of the one man he considered family, Naruto smiled right and eager at Hiruzen with an almost comical grin. They engaged in a sort of mediocre staring contest for a few moments before the Hokage tilted the wide brow of his hat over his eyes. It wouldn't do to let Naruto get the upper edge by seeing him blink first, now would it?

"Naruto... tomorrow is the exams to become a genin, a proud ranked shinobi of our fine village." Sarutobi offered, his mouth moving to distract before his expression gave away Naruto's victory. Of course, the words he came up with left a sour taste in his mouth. "Iruka will be having you clean the mountain twice now... do you really have time after failing the test twice to worry about spending today dealing with the aftermath of pranks?"

Sighing as a twinge of regret settled in his heart, Hiruzen watched out the corner of his eye the forlorn expression his young charge unknowingly brought to his face. Like a moth to the flame, the short young blonde hung to his Hokage's words like they were honey or vinegar in his mouth. The lad did desire to surpass him someday, and the wizened leader tried to indulge the kid here and there. But still, Hiruzen new in his heart that what he had to say could not wait.

"Tomorrow is the exams, the day upon which all your hopes and dreams rest upon Naruto! I understand the technique of transformation, henge, is hard for you, but despite any difficulties with your chakra, we cannot draw attention to you lest the villagers antagonize you further. You... ah child, you know it breaks my heart but you cannot waste time with such trivial pranks! You have to study! Even if you are strong, if you want my hat and this rate you'll never...!"

A soft sob broke the old man's concentration as he paused in mid speech, cracked lips turning into a sympathetic frown as a boy, under ten was now crying in his office. Hiruzen had no care to be mean, but it was a harsh lesson- in a world where the lives around you were reliant on your dedication, there was simply no room for a child to slack off. In the rival village of Kirigakure, they even expected some ninja to kill just to graduate the academy! If the Hokage could not be stern, then what sort of example would that set to let his cherished child die because his jiji didn't prepare him for the real world?

With an exasperated sigh, Hiruzen slid his fingers through his coarse, grey hair. It was troubling to be old, but he was not going to be around forever. Offering Naruto a sympathetic expression, he took a seat behind the desk and swiveled his chair around to stare out the windows of his tower that looked over the sprawling village hidden in the leaves.

"Dismissed. Good ...luck, Naruto."

One small, overlooked detail though. The Hokage, as powerful as he was could not be perfect. His back turned, Hiruzen did not see Naruto depart while his thoughts ran rampant, his calligraphy and seal work forgotten. Thus, the aged shinobi did not see the ink creation he sent to fetch the boy settle upon the child's shoulder as the boy ran out of the village leader's office. As the ink sparrow chirped cheerfully, the animation seal it had been reverted from sank down onto the back of Naruto's neck and disappeared, having not the chakra needed from Sarutobi's hand to fly back to its scroll.

When Naruto finally fell asleep this seal of animation, of bringing the life of ink used by so many talented shinobi such as Sai, flared as it mixed with a soft, pulsing red chakra. Naruto's story, naruto's future...his very destiny flowed into the seal as it sought to bring such words to life. Sooner or later, his story would be told.

Little did Sarutobi know that one small shift, this chance meeting was all it would take to change the world.

N N N

Morning struck, the gentle silence of the night broken with the crowing of roosters and alarm clocks across the vibrant village hidden in the leaves. The sun dawned bright and early as a slumped, groaning young boy dragged himself out of the covers, frog hat firmly on head as he drudged forth into the shower. This was, of course, the crown jewel of the land of fire where our story begins.

"A really pathetic story, but one filled with lots of action. Oh, and possibly revealing village secrets, amazingly epic fight scenes, and exposing the characters to information before their time." Naruto mumbled as he exited the shower on this glorious morning, not noticing what he said until it finished with an almost piecing pain in his eyes.

It all started with a twitch. A sort of anguished flickering, like the kind you get watching little circles out the corner of your eye.

Soon it evolved into muttered cursing, a towel bitterly rubbing the right side of a child's face, whispers of impossible things flying through one ear and out the other at this sudden deformaty. Cruelly, the boy wondered if he'd go blind like the poor Hyuuga Clan. Who, ironically enough proudly declared their seeming invincibility to the local menace's pranking habits... instead of mentioning to the other clans that he annually left the branch house an apologetic hug whenever he saw one.

Strangely, the one time he did end up hugging a *main* hyuuga clan member instead of a branch member, she seemed to have fainted dead away. Odd.

But enough of that. The haunting spectres of a child's imagination leapt forward as a blond haired boy stared with horrified understanding before his bathroom mirror. Mobs, chasing him like Doctor Frankenstein! Screeching banshees, cruel civilians- there might even be the occassional shinobi who might attempt to assassinate him! What a terrible existence such an unbelievable change in his daily routine might inspire!

"Except of course for a terrible secret leading half the village hating him already, this was obviously just another day in paradise for poor Uzumaki Naruto."

The jinchuuriki of Konoha, the self proclaimed future Hokage of Konoha hyperventilated frantically before the mirror, barely abreast of sheer confusion at what he was stating before pausing and hanging his head frantically as if to contemplate whatever on earth he just said. Not much different than daily life, it seemed. Except for his own mouth moving to mimic the words now appearing in his eyes like sunspots in the ocean before they disappeared into the clouds of his blinking eyelids.

Wait.

And that was how Uzumaki Naruto found himself, staring at his now newspaper colored grey sockets, the lights of his eyes now completely inversed like an old printing press. With different scrawled words and kanji flickering in and out of existence around his iris, the boy paused reflexively and read the word 'Hello' as it drifted about the curve of his eyelashes.

"Huh."

N N N

_...what have I created._


End file.
